News & Events

Archive for April, 2014

Wine editor Jo Burzynska’s guide to the 2014 not-to-be-missed wines on the market. By Jo Burzynska What makes a great wine? It’s a single question that can generate a multitude of different responses, but for me and this selection for the Viva Top 50, it’s all about personality. What I’ve sought are distinctive wines with real interest that taste of the place where their grapes were grown – a criteria that extends from the wines in the top echelons to those in the budget category. Most of the wines were tasted blind, with the final line-up chosen on quality, character and diversity. In all but the top 10, their value for money across all price brackets was also taken into account. Wines from the Top 50 are there to be enjoyed in their own right, but altogether provide an overview of some of the exciting things happening in the wines available in New Zealand today. These encompass the best of our popular home-grown varieties through to interesting examples of wines from overseas. Every year I taste thousands…